A prior art enteral diet product is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,800 (Mead Johnson) which teaches a nutritionally complete ready-to-use liquid diet for providing total patient nourishment. Although this prior art enteral diet product exhibits several advantages, e.g., a pH below around 4.5, which provides for microbial stability, it also exhibits some drawbacks notably, a too high osmolality, (which gives rise to a high osmotic load on the patient, and on occasion, poor palatability and diarrhea) and the necessity for inclusion of a separate emulsifier in order to generate a physically stable emulsion. Just to demonstrate that formulations of enteral diet products face multiple complex problems, it is noted that correction of the high osmolality in the products described by U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,800 through replacement of some of the amino acids with a protein derived product containing longer peptide chains may very well lead to a bitter tasting product, one unacceptable organoleptically.
Another prior art enteral diet product is described in European Patent Application No. 0,126,666 (Roussel-Uclaf), which teaches a diet product, the nitrogen part of which is a specified mixture of peptides of animal origin. However, the organoleptic properties of this prior art product are not believed to be satisfactory due to bitter taste.
Thus, a need exists for an enteral diet product of a pH value lower than about 4.5 and comprising as dietary nitrogen compounds protein derived compounds, fat, carbohydrate and water, which besides possessing the character of a physically and microbially stable emulsion should possess a satisfactory low osmolality, satisfactory organoleptic properties and satisfactory nutritional and handling properties in the clinic. The enteral diet products of the present invention exhibit all of the above-listed desired characteristics and properties.